SURVIVING AS A MICROVERSE STUDENT IN A RETARDED AFRICAN ECONOMY
So as we know it, survival is a major instinct in the average African blood, and no wonder that race survives through unimaginable conditions that leave an average mind wondering,” how on earth did he survive that”?
My journey through Microverse has taught me some basic wisdom to surviving through the not-so-palatable condition to achieve the best that an opportunity like Microverse offers, against all odds.
And I would love to share some with you here so that you can have a seamless journey that scales through bad network connections and having to apologize to your partner for not being able to participate in pair programming and/or the funny but not so funny robotic hazy sound you get from the other end because of low network bandwidth can be so hellish, yea you get what I mean right, yea,” lol” I caught you…
Take some local snacks and let us solve this problem together
Before applying ensure you have put in place a good and reliable power source for your pc:
This is a major requirement and cogent one for you to do, as you would need an average of 8 hours of intense study that would demand you having the uninterrupted time of code study and actual coding, so please ensure that you “clear your ground before sowing your seeds”.
As much as I hate to say it, most African countries are really not economical for the average citizen, and even as much as Microverse has made available all that you need to become a web developer, there is also a contribution you need to put in, which is not going to be from Microverse, so you need to ensure that you can make that possible.
Invest in getting a strong system that meets the requirements described here
One common thing that thrives in the common African countries is majorly getting “fairly used syste ms” which is affordable on the average but most times this kind of computers don’t get to have the strength for the rigor that it would go through in the program as it would be, most time of your day would be spent on your laptop, and your drive must be ready to do some marathon drive, obviously you don’t want to crash halfway in the program. so you should have a computer whose battery last 5–6 hours after fully charged .so if you get to charge twice, your pc should serve you through the day’s job, unlike when you have a pc that lasts only 2 hours, you need to plug in your charger to charge every 2 hours, or as commonly done, plug your battery throughout, which is not healthy for your battery.
The Black man can be a bit too Loud
For a smooth roll in the curriculum, having to battle the groundnut sellers noise, or the sound of the uncultured lorry driver, or the excited sound of your siblings when the light comes up, after being starved of electricity for hours, if not days, and it would be embarrassing, and would affect your professional assessment as it is a demand for both parties in pair programming to have a conducive environment to engage in collaborative projects.
So your question is “what do I do”? Obviously, if you live in a ghetto or a slum, you might not be able to move to a residential estate, or get an office, as you don’t have the means, but you can always locate a cyber hub, a place where you go daily and pay a certain fee to have access to light and free wifi, the environment is quite conducive for you to work, or probably if you have a friend, family or a church or any environment you are quite sure you would get serenity from.
Network connections
This is a major setback and issue most African students in this program have, as the data connection is the breath of your pair programming, you need to have enough data to participate in your online classes, there are ways by which you can avoid issues Systems would state some below:
i) avoid unnecessary tabs open in your browser, they lag your connections and put pressure on bandwidth, leave open, only the tabs that are necessary for your learning at the moment, and bookmark tabs you feel you might need later in the day.
ii) you can use video call when you feel necessary, but you can make your issues lesser by having your video turned off sometimes, especially in the afternoon, there seem to be more users, at this time, and the connection seems to be bad because there are many competitions in the data space.
iii) put off your data when not in use, it would help preserve your data
iv) Get the best network provider as your choice, this would certainly give you an edge
Eat well
I know this might sound trivial, but do you know how it feels to write codes when you are hungry? Oh my!!! It could be as frustrating as wanting as walking through the dark, I understand it costs quite some money getting food, especially in some African countries, well not to go into the political and economical craze in this article, but really, you don’t need much to eat well, ensure you observe the lunch period, to get some food, take water intermittently and you would just be in a very right mental frame to kill the bugs and build the codes.
From experience, programming sucks glucose. lol.
